The unfolding scandal over a gunrunning investigation allegedly botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could do what years of criticism of the long-beleaguered agency never quite accomplished — result in its demise.

That, at least, is the view of some former ATF employees and advocates on both sides of the gun control debate who have watched the agency struggle to contain the damage from an operation intended to trace the traffic of illegal guns to Mexico that has reignited the harsh criticism often directed at the ATF in the past.

The agency, which moved from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department in 2003, has been without a permanent director for nearly five years. Nominees offered by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have languished without approval from the Senate after drawing strong opposition from the National Rifle Association, which for years has been the agency’s loudest critic.

Now, with ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson hobbled by the scandal over Operation Fast and Furious and by indications he’s at odds with senior Justice Department officials, many are saying a breakup of the storied agency could just be a matter of time.

“I think something like that is likely to happen,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Unless they take some action to give it a director, it’s inevitable it’s going to have to get to that stage. It cannot continue the way it’s going now. … Right now, ATF is so weak it’s amazing.” . . .

“I point the finger at Congress. You made it confirmable, so confirm somebody. If not, restructure it. … If this structure doesn’t work, let’s get a structure that does,” Helmke said.

Now folks, when rabid anti-gunners like Helmke get around to accepting the ATF's demise, you've got to ask yourself why. The answer? They are protecting the larger mission -- both the Obama administration and the gun control mission. This scandal is so bad, they know they'll have to give up something. But they also know that the firearm laws of the United States are NOT going to be repealed anytime soon.

As a matter of fact, these schmucks -- both the gun confiscationists and the guilty Gunwalker conspirators -- NEED you to think that this is about the ATF. The more folks focus on the tree of the ATF, the less they're worried about the larger forest of their naked attempt to subvert the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

And it is not just Helmke:

Some experts said the ATF, a successor to Treasury’s Prohibition Unit that once counted crimefighter Eliot Ness among its ranks, has outlived its usefulness.

“Even the name of the organization, it’s from the black-and-white movie era,” said Jim Kessler of Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. “I don’t think it should exist. The investigations should be subsumed within the FBI, and the licensing could be done by Treasury, which is a tax-collecting agency.”

Oh, right. Let's give it to the FBI, the same agency that we now know did its best to cover-up the circumstances of Brian Terry's murder by letting go three men apprehended at the murder scene and the same agency who had a cartel gunrunner as a paid informant WITHOUT telling the ATF. The same agency that has always been a lot more competent at avoiding punishment for their own fatal misdeeds, including the killing of Vicki Weaver and the immolation of 80 Davidian men, women and children. Yeah, THAT FBI.

Right.

Worse, the secret political policemen of DHS are waiting in the wings for the gun control mission.

But right now, it is to the advantage of the guilty parties at the top echelon of the Gunwalker conspirators at FBI, DEA. State, the NSC and White House for everybody to believe that this is strictly an ATF scandal.

By focusing on the tool, they hope you'll miss the fingerprints of the hand that wielded it.

Interesting, I recall reading somewhere (might have been Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich") that a common lamentation among Germans when they were exposed to the true nature of the Nazi system was, "If only the Fuhrer knew."

It never dawned on them that the evil they were witnessing was happening BECAUSE of the Fuhrer and not in spite of him; that it was a reflection of the evil emanating from the man at the top.

Seems to be a common viewpoint in societies governed by a cult of personality: evil and injustice cannot possibly be linked to the Leader. He must not know about it, otherwise he would have rectified it; Lord knows, the Fuhrer can do no wrong.

You betcha it is an obama scandal. This is his and george soreass's doing along with the recently proven to be without authority..united nations. Thank you Governor Perry and review board for telling them to stick it. Bye unrepentent mexican illegal, rapist and murderer. Hope you're enjoying Hell, filthy motherf*cker.

I point out to everyone I talk to about Gun-Walker that this in all probability was a plan by the people in the Administration to circumvent the Second Amendment and reinstate some kind of Assault Weapons Ban.

Whats Fast & Furious is how quickly the chickens have come home to roost.It is delicious and gratifying on the highest order watching these acts of tyranny and treason unfold.I think what is to come will make what is known now seem like a fart in a mitten.

"Interesting, I recall reading somewhere (might have been Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich") that a common lamentation among Germans when they were exposed to the true nature of the Nazi system was, "If only the Fuhrer knew." "

Similar phenomenon a few years later when inmates in the Gulag cried when they heard of Joe Stalin's death. Their imprisonment at hard labor in inhuman conditions was an obvious mistake that Uncle Joe would have corrected if he only knew.

Mike - you (& Dave C - among others) have done a masterful job in exposing this whole deal - BUT I think you have made one mistake: To wit: calling this abomination a 'scandal'. It is not a scandal - it is blatant, overt criminal activity, probably (easily) rising to the level of 'high crimes and misdemeanors'.As we all know, allowing the 'opposition' to define the terms - scandal vice crime, we have allowed them to shape the direction of both the ongoing congressional investigations as well as the discourse revolving around it.THANK YOU. (other than that minor little glitch - but hey I still call a 'magazine' a magazine and not a clip!)

I agree with Dennis. This has been the plan all along. Inflate the numbers and institute a new and improved AWB. Now with Obummer trying to slip in gun control by executive order, we have learned what under the radar means. I too ask, when can we ask for and get impeachment. Let's face it, Biden might be a idiot, but he's not the same caliber scum as obummer and company.

Fair enough Mike. Than for the protection of the Constitution ATF needs to be shut down because of the political landscape that can use such an agency for an act of Treason. Allow the employees of that agency ATF to sue every penny out of the elitist that were behind it because there acts of Treason cost them their jobs. If the elitist of Gun Walker (F&F) are not brought to justice and ATF ended or just becoming a very small federal agency called "AT". Then we have some of the most solid proof that we have a government that does not work for the American people.

The more I look at this and the players involved, the more I come to realize that this is a global conspiracy to undermine our Second Amendment. In so doing, they can usher into being international gun control under the guise of the UNSAT and CIFTA.

American gun owners are really the only bulwark against a global government. Our constitution stands in the way of their progress. To rid us of our constitution, they need a pretense to rid us of our guns.

No. This was a direct assault on the constitution, meaning the rights of all citizens, by way of the second amendment.

The means of the assault was the second amendment this time but the ultimate target is ALL of your freedom, your dreams and aspirations, and everything you ever dreamed you might possess. Double ditto for you kids.

The proper reaction is anger. The proper response is resistance which is no longer passive.

Mike there’s something about these ATF scandals that in my opinion people have missed.

I believe these operations are a covert operation to destabilize Central and South America as well as Mexico using the drug cartels.

When we first learned of fast and furious we thought it was about blaming US gun rights for Mexico’s problems but now we have castaway doing to central and South America what F&F is doing to Mexico; destabilization.

The real question is why?

I believe the end game is to strengthen IMF control over the region

Blaming the US 2A maybe just a fringe benefit for the Elite in Washington to go along with the plan

About the only thing that can be done with ATF now is install a director with a track record of turning around a corrupt LE agency into a professional one. Sadly, few of these exist, even at the city police chief level. He need not be pro-gun (boy! wouldn't that shake up some folks) but he should not be anti-gun either -- that'd be like making David Duke director of the civil rights division. ATF's mission should target illegal weapons, gunrunning, terrorism and, at the lowest level, FFL compliance inspections.

It'd be a very different world with ATF's FFL compliance unit publishing "best practices" documents for FFLs, working with them to stop straw-buys (like the NSSF program), spot gang members, etc.

Getting the FFLs goodwill would help compliance and fighting crime. That would free staff to go after the druggies, gunrunners, nutjobs and felons with guns.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.